Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raised this issue with the Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, a number of weeks ago. I said it was totally unfair to give one section of the people in the country an advantage over another section of the people, those being private renters, our own people. It is grand for the Government to give what it wants to Ukrainians but it must do the very same thing for our own people. How can the Minister expect any person who is trying to live and has a house to rent to rent that house out at €800 to local people or our own people who are homeless and pay half back in tax as against getting €800 tax free from the State? Now, you must be fair or you must not be there at all.

I am getting very worried that every day we have the Government in power, it is doing more damage and this country will finish up totally and absolutely broken the way the Government is flitting around with money. It is not its money. It is the people who get out in the morning early and work and pay maybe 40% of their income in tax and 4.5% USC on top of that. That is what the wrong is. It is not the Government’s money. If it is going to continue with this payment to people coming from Ukraine, and we all empathise and sympathise with their predicament, be fair about the bloody thing. That is what I am asking for the Government to be. It came out the other day that the Government paid €850,000 to house and accommodate dogs and pets for people coming from Ukraine. We have enough dogs and pets here in Ireland and there is plenty of them to be got. If it was a dog here, you would pay a dog licence for it. Did the Government pay for the dog licence as well on top of that? Those are the questions. The Government is paying €1.5 billion for hotel and commercial accommodation. God almighty, how is the country going to sustain that? And the Government is wondering about bringing in more of them.

Be fair to everyone. Be fair to our own people. Be fair to the Ukraine people and to the asylum seekers who are coming here. The Government does not have accommodation for them. It does not have one iota of anything to provide separate accommodation for them in any town or village. The Government has 36% of hotel bed nights in Killarney taken up. What does that mean only that the footfall into the restaurants, the cafés and souvenir shops has all diminished and slowed down. So many people in Killarney town are gone out of business. They asked for simple things like forgoing rates or having a waiver on rates. Did the Government do it? No, it did not and it will not. It is absolutely ridiculous. Every day the Government is in power it is doing harm and the people do not trust it anymore. Whether it is a referendum or whatever it is bringing forward, the people do not trust it. The Government fires the money away that people are working hard for and it has no cognisance of the effect of what it is doing. I have no problem with the €800 to house Ukrainians, but God damn it, Minister, you must do the very same for our own people, or if not, get out of the job, and take Micheál Martin with you because he laughed and sneered at me for raising that issue a couple of weeks ago. The Government is out of order. It has gone beyond its remit. If there is a vote on this tonight, I call on every Deputy who was elected to this Chamber to vote against this proposal as it stands because it is not fair.

It is not fair for those people who are homeless and are lying on the side of the streets. I heard from a woman this morning, a single woman who has been on the housing list for five years. The only house she can get in Tralee town is going to cost her €1,350 a month. The man who owns the house feels he is entitled to get it. Will the Government pay him €800 of that cost tax free? If you are getting €800 tax free, I wager that is at least €1,700 or €1,800 before you have to pay 50% of it back in tax.

Minister, you have gone far beyond your remit. Unless the Government is getting money from Europe or something, and it should come out with it and tell us if it is, spending taxpayers' money with reckless disregard like this is shameful. Shame on the whole bloody lot of you.

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